The Arara
Indians of Brazil are fighting to save their land, Cachoeira Seca (Dry
Rapids). The territory has been invaded on a massive scale by settlers
and loggers, who are disturbing the game the Arara hunt and
transmitting diseases against which this remote group has little
immunity.
Thirty indigenous representatives, including some Arara who were
travelling out of Cachoeira Seca for the first time, recently met in
the Amazon town of Altamira to lobby the authorities. ‘Where will we raise
our grandchildren?' asked Kygy Arara, an old man who attended the
meeting.
Although FUNAI, the government's Indians affairs department, has
established a group of experts to map – or demarcate – the land, its
work has been hampered by legal challenges.
The Arara of Cachoeira Seca were contacted in 1989, and since then have suffered from diseases transmitted by outsiders.
